RAPP Campaign

Release Aging People in Prison Campaign

death by incarceration

Legal Team of Political Prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal Appeals to the UN for Support

Renée Feltz, Truthout — World-renowned political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is 72 years old, suffering multiple health problems, and may die in prison, say legal advocates in a new request they filed today that asks the United Nations to support his release. Abu-Jamal’s legal team decided to appeal to the UN after having exhausted nearly every legal avenue for relief available in the United States. ¶ Abu-Jamal was a Black Panther and journalist when he was convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, and he has always maintained his innocence. His death sentence was overturned in 2001, and in 2011, Pennsylvania resentenced him to life without parole. Since then, “each attempt to secure Mr. Abu-Jamal a new and fair trial has been rejected,” argues a submission his lawyer Bret Grote and others made on his behalf to the UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention....

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Journalist, Elder Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Perpetual Detention Unjust, Human Rights Groups Appeal to United Nations

Abolitionist Law Center — (PHILADELPHIA) For more than 44 years, U.S. citizen Mumia Abu-Jamal has been arbitrarily detained in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Today, Abolitionist Law Center and a national coalition of other human rights organizations – American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Constitutional Rights, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, and Release Aging People in Prison Campaign – submitted a petition to a United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention seeking relief...

Read moreJournalist, Elder Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Perpetual Detention Unjust, Human Rights Groups Appeal to United Nations

“Holding on to Love” • Theresa Grady on Loss, Healing, and Justice, via Legal Aid Radio 📻

Debra Sterling Walters • Theresa Grady, Legal Aid Radio — On this episode of Legal Aid Radio, Theresa Grady shares the story of her husband, Morris Edward Grady, her first love and lifelong partner, whose life was cut short while incarcerated. Through heartbreak, she continues to rise as a voice for justice, fighting for dignity and fair treatment for aging people behind bars. It’s a powerful reminder that behind every sentence is a human being… and behind every loss is a family still learning how to heal...

Read more“Holding on to Love” • Theresa Grady on Loss, Healing, and Justice, via Legal Aid Radio 📻

I Faced Death by Incarceration. The UN Heard My Plea to Abolish Life Sentences.

Robert Saleem Holbrook: Truthout – Decades ago, most people had never even heard the term “death by incarceration,” the racially discriminatory and cruel practice commonly known as life imprisonment. Now in 2023, the United Nations has condemned it and called on the United States to abolish it....

Read moreI Faced Death by Incarceration. The UN Heard My Plea to Abolish Life Sentences.

UN ‘Special Rapporteur on Racism’ Charges U.S. Death by Incarceration Prison Sentences Especially Hurt Black, Latinx People Criminalized in Context of Domestic Violence

The Vanguard Staff: The Davis Vanguard — NEW YORK CITY, NY – The United Nations special rapporteur on racism this week released, according to the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP), a powerful statement charging the U.S. “makes it way too easy for people to receive death-by-incarceration prison sentences, especially Black and Latino people and women who are criminalized in the context of domestic violence. ..

Read moreUN ‘Special Rapporteur on Racism’ Charges U.S. Death by Incarceration Prison Sentences Especially Hurt Black, Latinx People Criminalized in Context of Domestic Violence